



THE ENGINEER OF THE 
TWENTIETH CENTURY 







- 



WITH COMPLIMENTS OE 



CHARLES F. SCOTT. 



THE ENGINEER OF THE 
TWENTIETH CENTURY 



Response to a 
Toast at the 



TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY 

ENGINEERS' CLUB OF 

PHILADELPHIA 



Held at Union League 
Saturday, Dec. 6, 1902 



BY CHARLES F. SCOTT 

President, Engineers' Society of Western 
Pennsylvania 

President, American Institute of Electrical 
Engineers 






24Ap'03 



■ c) 



THE ENGINEER OF THE 
TWENTIETH CENTURY 




entlemen:— It is signifi- 
cant that the response 
to this toast is assigned 
to the representative of 
the Engineers' Society 
of Western Pennsyl- 
vania. This Society represents the 
engineers of Pittsburg, the city above 
all others pre-eminent in its indus- 
trial and engineering works in the 
country which is assuming the in- 
dustrial supremacy of the world. 
The products of Pittsburg owe their 
inception to the inventions and de- 
signs of the engineer ; under his 
supervision they are manufactured ; 



and in turn they become the mate- 
rials which other engineers employ 
in the construction of buildings, 
railroads and power plants through- 
out the whole world. This is 
the age of steel ; Pittsburg fur- 
nishes the steel. This is the age of 
electricity ; she produces the largest 
dynamos. The tonnage of Pitts- 
burg's railways exceeds that of 
London or Paris. The tonnage of the 
Pittsburg harbor, notwithstanding 
shallow bottoms and low bridges 
approximates that of the New York 
harbor. Industrial Pittsburg ! of the 
engineer ! by the engineer! for the 
engineer! — typical of the present, 
significant of the future ! Do you 
ask me to portray that future ? I 
ask you to look back fifty years to 
the time when the first railroad 
bridge across the Allegheny built 



against the protest of hack drivers 
and sympathetic citizens brought 
together the track from Ohio and 
the track to Philadelphia ; it brought 
them together, but it did not join 
them ; for the state legislature had 
ordained that the gauges of the 
tracks should be different, in order to 
prevent domestic cars from wander- 
ing too far from home. Compare 
conditions then with those now. 
Note what the engineer has done 
since some of those present reached 
middle life. Who will venture to 
predict what we young men may 
see before we become old ? It is 
with pride that I see how my own 
city — Smoky City of the Keystone 
State, the city of engineers and of 
industry — is growing in influence. 
A week ago a Philadelphia paper 
quoted a multi-millionaire thus ; 



"Pittsburg instead of Wall street 
must be considered hereafter as the 
potent factor in the continuation of 
our national prosperity. " When 
money rates go up in Wall street 
and wage rates go up in Pittsburg 
simultaneously, it is the industrial 
thermometer which most truly in- 
dicates the real prosperity. Enter 
Engineer ; Exit Speculator. 

It is significant also that the re- 
ponse to this toast is assigned to the 
representative of the American In- 
stitute of Electrical Engineers. This 
organization represents the electri- 
cal engineers of America — the 
country above all others pre-emi- 
nent in electrical activity — at a time 
when its applications are making 
this the Age of Electricity. For a 
retrospect of general engineering we 
appeal to the memory of men past 



middle life ; but the electrical 
awakening is within the easy mem- 
ory of us all. 

Electrical work is seldom inde- 
pendent. It does not stand alone, 
complete in itself. Electricity is 
usually an instrument, a means 
to an end. It is not energy de- 
rived at first hand from electricity 
which enables the car to move 
and the crane to lift a weight. It is 
power derived from the engine, 
which happily can be transmitted 
by electric wires better than by 
shafts or ropes or belts. It is 
because electricity is primarily an 
agent, a means, that its applications 
have been so diversified, so ex- 
tensive, and so far reaching in 
their effects. 

The telegraph, the cable, the tele- 
phone have had a profound effect 

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upon political, commercial and social 
affairs. The applications of elec- 
tricity bring the evolution of new 
methods as well as the revolution of 
old ones. It is a new instrument 
which has given to the whole world 
a new method of doing things. 

The electrical engineer follows 
the new gospel, the Gospel of Ser- 
vice. His mission is helpfulness. 
Through his aid the mining engineer 
lights his mine, drives his fans and 
pumps and drills and conveys his 
product. Through his aid the me- 
chanical engineer has modernized 
the machine shop by the electric 
crane and by motor -driven tools 
which increase output and reduce 
cost. Through his aid the railway 
engineer has replaced the horse-car 
by the people's automobile, which 
for a few cents will carry anybody 



from city to suburb more quickly 
than it was possible by any means 
at the command of even the mil- 
lionaire a dozen years ago, and that, 
too, with the added comforts of 
warmth and light Through his aid 
a new realm is opened to the chem- 
ist in the field of electrochemistry. 
Through his aid the engineer of plant 
life, the farmer of the West, trans- 
forms the desert into a garden by 
motor-driven pumps and the distant 
water power. Through his aid the 
engineer of human life is given a 
new sight to penetrate the living 
body and a new stimulus to excite 
the inactive muscle. Through his 
aid the luxuries of yesterday have 
become the necessities of to-day, 
and the impossible has become the 
commonplace. 

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The great discovery of the Nine- 
teenth Century was Co-Opera- 
tion, the effectiveness of concen- 
tration, the efficiency of largeness. 
Compare the old days of the hand- 
loom in the home, of the shoemaker 
at his bench, of the individual oil 
well and coal mine, of the small 
railroad and of the small factory, — 
compare these with modern meth- 
ods, pregnant as they are with 
unbounded possibilities — possibili- 
ties of good and possibilities of 
evil ; of good, because the engineer 
has provided the means for doing 
the world's work far more effic- 
iently; of evil, because the social, 
the industrial, the commercial sys- 
tems have not kept pace with the 
advance made by the engineer, but 
are still tainted with injustice and 

selfishness. 

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The tendencies of the Nineteenth 
Century projected into the future, 
reveal in dim outlines at least, the 
Engineer of the Twentieth Century. 
He is to deal with large affairs in a 
large way. He is to be closely 
related to every department of mod- 
ern life. He is to become a chief 
factor in adjusting and operating the 
intricate mechanism of a new civi- 
lization. He is to advance to ad- 
ministrative positions for which his 
knowledge and his training peculi- 
arly fit him. Note present examples. 
At the head of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad, directing its vast affairs in 
the present and planning to meet 
the demands of the future, is an 
engineer surrounded by engineers — 
President Cassatt. At the head of 
the interests with which I am 

connected is a man, successful as 

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organizer and manager and financier, 
a genius in his foresight, but first of 
all an engineer, George Westing- 
house. Sound judgment, breadth 
of view, integrity of character, the 
ability to understand and to control 
men as well as matter, and to direct 
human forces as well as physical 
forces, are essential to the engineer 
of the future. A recent event which 
has aided in bringing America to pre- 
eminence is the victory of our Navy. 
A naval battle is a contest between 
fighting machines, and these are the 
products of the Engineer. All honor, 
then, to the Engineer, so fittingly 
represented here to-night by Ad- 
miral Melville. 

Besides their new relations to 
others, there will be new relations 
of engineers among themselves. 

All that I have said so far empha- 

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sizes what we all know, namely, 
that the several branches of engi- 
neering are intimately interdependent 
and correlated. Take a single in- 
stance of large work, the extension 
of the Pennsylvania Railroad into 
New York City, — the tunnels under 
the Hudson and East Rivers, the 
terminal facilities and the electrical 
equipment — and endeavor to name 
an important branch of engineering 
which is not essential to this under- 
taking. The work of the future 
demands co-operation, not clanish- 
ness — unity, not jealousy. Engi- 
neers must be specialists, therefore 
they must work together. The sev- 
eral branches of the profession have 
their individual interests ; they have 
a larger common interest. As we 
marvel at what the engineer has 
done, as we attempt to picture what 

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he may accomplish, do we realize 
the far-reaching responsibilities 
which confront us ? Shall we rise 
to meet them ? We gave to the 
world the steam engine, the steam 
vessel, the railroad, the telegraph 
and the cable, machinery, industrial 
processes, the electrical central sta- 
tion — the fundamental requisites 
which underlie co-operation. Is it 
not time that we apply to ourselves 
the great lesson of the last century ? 
What organization stands before the 
world as representative of the engi- 
neering profession ? In what way 
do engineers present themselves to 
other professions ? A noted lawyer 
recently addressed the annual ban- 
quet of a local engineers' society 
containing members of national and 
international reputation. His remarks 
were based upon the idea that all 

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engineers were co-ordinate with a 
common chainman, and they would 
have been positively insulting but 
for his air of blissful ignorance. A 
few years ago a gentleman of emi- 
nence, in addressing the American 
Society of Mechanical Engineers, 
advised its members not to join in 
a machinists' strike ? Has the engi- 
neer been accorded the recognition 
and the reward which are his 
due? In what way do engineers 
co-operate to advance their own 
profession by mutual helpfulness 
and by undertaking measures which 
advance the efficiency and the use- 
fulness of engineering work ? There 
are national engineering organiza- 
tions of various kinds, — the Civil 
Engineers, the Mining Engineers, 
the Mechanical Engineers, the Elec- 
trical Engineers, the Architects, the 

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Naval Architects and Marine Engi- 
neers, the engineers in the Army 
and the Navy, and there are the 
Chemists, the Electrochemists and 
others. In general each knows that 
other societies exist, and they are 
mutually respectful, but there is 
some suspicion here and there that 
the others are a little too exclusive 
or that they are a bit jealous. These 
are the murmurings of littleness, not 
of largeness. 

The several engineering profes- 
sions, like the constituent States, 
have their representative bodies, 
their legislatures, but why should 
there not be an Engineering Con- 
gress as well ? Why not a national 
representative body, to stand for 
the profession of engineering as a 
whole, to promote a harmonious 

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co-operation which will strengthen 
each and elevate all ? 

An incident of the past year is 
an auspicious omen. Four great 
societies have co-operated ; they 
have taken a step which will bring 
recognition to the deserving indi- 
vidual and credit to the engineering 
profession. They have founded a 
medal ; and at a recent magnificent 
dinner they have announced the 
award of the first John Fritz Medal 
to the venerable man who has just 
spoken, John Fritz himself. But 
not less significant than even the 
medal is the discovery that the 
societies can work together, and 
that by doing so they can accom- 
plish worthy ends. 

In the vision of the future may 
we not discern a reflection of the 
John Fritz Medal in the larger life 

17 



of the Twentieth Century engineer ? 
Methinks I see in that reflection the 
outlines of a magnificant building, 
the Capitol of American Engineering. 
Into this home, situated in the me- 
tropolis of the Nation, are gathered 
the great engineering societies from 
their scattered lodgings. Here is 
a great technical library; here 
are ample assembly halls and com- 
fortable parlors; here are the 
headquarters of a score of lesser 
societies, restricted in their scope, 
but affiliated in their work. I see all 
over the country innumerable local 
societies and engineering clubs, no 
longer isolated but joined together 
into one great combination. I see 
them affiliated with the national 
bodies of the several professions — 
sometimes as local chapters — alto- 
gether constituting one great union. 

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There is individual freedom but 
general co-operation. Representing 
all the engineering professions and 
supported by the great union of 
the national engineering societies, I 
see an Engineering Congress giving 
to engineers a rank consistent with 
the importance of their work, and 
increasing the efficiency of the 
inter-relations among its members. 
An eminent body, it is powerful in 
advancing the common interests of 
engineers, and it represents the engi- 
neering profession in its relation to 
other professions, to pure science, 
to education, to legislation, to public 
improvements and to the general 
welfare. 

Years ago engineers were indi- 
viduals of trivial consequence 
compared with men in the learned 
professions, Now they, too, form 

19 



a profession of recognized impor- 
tance. But as yet the national 
societies of this profession, which 
has made the nineteenth century an 
era in the world's history, which 
has provided the means for the 
production of unmeasured wealth, 
and which promises yet greater 
things for the future, have not 
even adequate homes of their own. 
Within the present week the So- 
ciety of Mechanical Engineers, 
which has a little house of its own, 
found it so very little that it was 
forced to hold its meetings in a 
large room in a nearby tavern, al- 
though there were present men 
through whose work hundreds of 
millions have been added to the 
wealth of this country, and their 

present efforts are to increase the 

20 



efficiency of the future. Is this 
right ? Is it just ? 

But may not the fault lie some- 
what with the engineers them- 
selves? Have they fully recognized 
their own strength and importance ? 
Have they shown a disposition to 
act together, to do large work in 
a large way? Have they given 
promise that they would use the 
enlarged facilities in such a way as 
to increase the efficiency of engi- 
neering work ? 

The men who are mastering the 
powers of nature will yet rise in 
the strength of united effort to 
meet the increasing responsibilities 
of the coming years. For it is theirs 
to build the foundation of the new 
civilization ; it is theirs to establish 
that material prosperity which is 

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the underlying condition of broader, 
higher and fuller life. 

The end of engineering is useful- 
ness; the characteristic of America 
is activity; the modern method is 
co-operation. As Engineers of the 
Twentieth Century, let us be useful ; 
let us be active; let us co-operate. 



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